Schools struggle with lead in water while awaiting federal relief
Chris Cornelius, head custodian of Philipsburg Public Schools in Montana, checks a faucet filter in a home economics classroom. Despite a new faucet and inlet pipes, this sink is one of several in the district that continue to show lead levels beyond the state’s threshold. (Katheryn Houghton/KHN)
A pair of drinking fountains at Sentinel High School in Missoula, Montana, tested for levels of lead that required school officials to either fix the fountains or shut them off. (Katheryn Houghton/KHN)
Thomas Gates, principal and superintendent of Philipsburg Public Schools in Montana, stands outside a building in which half the faucets revealed high enough levels of lead that the district had to repair or turn off the fixtures. (Katheryn Houghton/KHN)
PHILIPSBURG — On a recent day in this 19th-century mining town turned tourist hot spot, students made their way into the Granite High School lobby and past a new filtered water bottle fill station.
Water samples taken from the drinking fountain the station replaced had a lead concentration of 10 parts per billion — twice Montana’s legal limit for schools of 5 parts per billion for the toxic metal...
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